David Nebenzahl wrote:
I know it can be done, but am having trouble making it work.

The idea is to connect 2 PCs directly through their modems. Not cable
modems, ordinary 56K modems. I call it my "Poor Man's Network".

I've found the following pages that describe this operation:

http://phorums.com.au/archive/index.php/t-120530.html
http://www.jagshouse.com/modem.html

That second link suggests powering the connecting line with ~24 VDC, but
I don't think that's actually necessary. (The first link describes
connecting two computeri via modem with no extra hardware needed.)

So when I set this up--2 computeri with connected modems, using
HyperTerminal at each end, with the following commands:

o sending computer: ATX3D
o receiving computer: ATA

I hear stuff through the speaker on the RX end, typical modem connect
tones to start, but I don't hear all that "chirping" usually associated
with dial-up connections; just a steady, low tone that lasts for, say,
30 seconds or so, then the connection goes dead and I get "NO CARRIER"
at both ends.

Everything seems configured correctly: I've set the speed at both ends
to 56K and disabled waiting for dial tone.

So what am I doing wrong here?

Please don't suggest using Ethernet or something else instead. I'm
trying to use what's at hand here.

Thanks for any help.


Do you have to use a modem?
Ditch the modems and use a null-modem swizzle cable to connect the RS232
ports.
If you have a parallel port, you can use the trialware version of
totalcommander and the companion program lptdos to connect using
a laplink (swizzle cable) on the parallel ports.
www.pinouts.ru
MUCH faster.
Nice thing about that is you can boot a dos floppy and do file
transfers from your windows machine to load a computer from scratch.

But lan cards wired or wireless are dirt cheap these days.
Drop by my place and I'll GIVE you two...if I haven't pitched them all
by now.
OOps, I didn't say that...'cause you don't want to know.